John Simon
Acerbic American theater and film critic; his negative New York Times Book Review notice of Harlot's Ghost in 1991 set off a public dispute with Mailer.
John Simon, the famously caustic theater and film critic, reviewed Harlot’s Ghost unfavorably (“The Company They Keep”) on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, 29 September 1991. The review touched off a public dispute: Mailer called Simon “the Adolf Eichmann of theater critics” (91.15) and won space for a 1,500-word rebuttal, “A Critic with Balance” (91.48), in which he catalogued Simon’s earlier hostile reviews — including one of Kate Mailer’s 1988 stage performance. The episode is documented across 91.14–91.16, 91.19, 91.43, and 91.48.
Stub created during the 1991 ingest.
Related pages
- Harlot’s Ghost (91.26) | 1991